Leeds 1-3 Arsenal: Nasri inspires Arsenal

Leeds were unable to reproduce their heroics of last weekend, as Arsenal progress to the fourth round.

Simon Grayson made one change from the first game. Luciano Becchio was out injured, so Billy Paynter came in.

Arsene Wenger made three changes from that 1-1 draw – Bacary Sagna and Laurent Koscielny started, whilst Samir Nasri was used in place of Tomas Rosicky.

That was the only change to Arsenal’s front six, and the improvement in Arsenal’s passing and movement in the final third must be attributed mainly to Nasri’s presence. He was yet again superb, linking play, finding space between the lines, and popping up to open the scoring before the game had established a clear pattern.

Positional changes

Leeds used two of their attacking players in a different way to at the Emirates. There, on-loan Arsenal player Sanchez Watt started on the right, with Robert Snodgrass through the centre. Today, it was the reverse – Snodgrass reverted to his right-sided role, and Watt played in the centre having impressed there against Scunthorpe at the weekend. This was presumably a move to give Leeds some pace upfront, having seen how vulnerable the Arsenal backline was to balls over the top in last week’s defeat to Ipswich.

Arsenal also made a switch in positioning, albeit minor. Alex Song was on the left of the midfield duo with Denilson on the right, the reverse of the usual situation. The most plausible reason for this was that Wenger wanted to protect Kieran Gibbs more against the trickery of Snodgrass or Watt, though it’s rare that Wenger changes his preferred starting XI specifically for a particular opponent, especially when playing a side so clearly inferior to Arsenal in pure technical ability.

Sagna free

The main battle of the game was happening down the opposite side of the pitch, however. Wenger surprisingly left Theo Walcott out – despite him having changed the first leg completely after his introduction, and despite his contribution to all three goals as Arsenal defeated West Ham at the weekend. Walcott’s pace would have terrorised Leeds left-back Ben Parker, but this was instead left to Sagna, who charged up and down the right flank like Dani Alves for most of the first half, allowing Nicklas Bendtner infield into his favoured central position.

Sagna nearly set up Bendtner with one of his darts forward, then powered a shot into the top corner to give Arsenal a 2-0 lead. The complete absence of any closing down from the Leeds defence when the ball dropped to the French right-back was bizarre, and Grayson decided to switch Max Gradel (who had a poor game defensively) and Watt, who was positionally disciplined and used his pace to track Sagna very well.

In truth, Arsenal were in control until Leeds got back in it with Bradley Johnson’s astonishing long-range strike – and then the home side grew in confidence.

Second half

Leeds came out rejuvenated for the second half, and pressed very intensely from the front. Whereas Watt had been given instructions to drop in on Song when Leeds lost the ball in the first half, Gradel (now playing in that position) was ordered to stay high up the pitch, as Leeds more or less went with a 4-4-2. The pressing worked well for 10 minutes or so, before Leeds tired and Arsenal used the ball better in midfield, where they now had a numerical advantage.

Still, Leeds threatened – mainly down their right, partly thanks to Arshavin’s lack of defensive ability. Leeds’ best chance came when Paul Connolly overlapped past the Russian and combined well with Snodgrass, but his cross was hit too hard at substitute Davide Somma, and bounced wide.

Wenger introduced Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie, and Arsenal eventually made the game safe when Leeds pushed forward more for the equaliser – Bendtner’s cross was nodded in at the far post by van Persie. The Dutchman has supposedly been working on his heading in training – this was the first sign that work has paid off.

Conclusion

There were two key factors here – Nasri’s return, and Sagna’s freedom to get forward down the right. Grayson’s overall strategy was the right approach, but he’ll have been disappointed that Nasri and Sagna were simply not tracked properly for the first two goals, which put Arsenal in command.

Great analysis as usual. I was similarly surprised with Sagna freedom. i think Sagna is one of the best RBs in the world and he’s improving his attacking side of the game very vastly. He was key today. I m happy Eboue didnt play.

RA on January 19, 2011 at 11:10 pm

He has always been a consistent performer and solid defensively but this season he has improved his attacking game vastly. Probably doubled his previous career goals already this season.

Brian in Brooklyn on January 19, 2011 at 11:20 pm

He has indeed doubled his career goals. He now stands at three, two of which he knocked in this season.

I hope Wenger will have learned his lesson from tonight and the previous Cup ties. Mainly Rosicky cannot do the ‘Cesc’ Role without Nasri there. So if he wants to rest players it will have to be imo Nasri in for Cesc or vice versa. He can then chose to deploy rosicky/AA23 on the left Walcott/Bendtner on the right RVP/Chamkakh in the centre. It really is that simple. The combination of Rosicky in the middle and Nasri/AA23/Walcott/RVP on the wide positions simply does not work as well, it’s not as incisive. What do you think ZM?

I thought Rosicky was probably Arsenal’s best (starting) player in the first game, Nasri was the best in the second, but Nasri did so much more and really looked to ‘force the issue’ in that zone. Leeds couldn’t seem to deal with a central attacking midfielder…

DMirdita on January 20, 2011 at 12:26 am

that’s why i say, there’s no rotating issue. Remember we were pulling off results consistently with Cesc injured earlier in the season. We had no trouble scoring goals and so on. Everyone can get a rest if he just swaps like for like, but shaking the whole team up obviously was too much change.

All i want from the transfer window is central defenders!!!

drew on January 20, 2011 at 1:10 am

If my memory serves me, Rosicky played the Cesc-role for the majority of the games with Fabregas out earlier in the season, and as you say the team did fine. Wenger has made it clear that he sees Nasri’s best fit in this system as a wide player.

Arsenal4 on January 20, 2011 at 1:17 pm

I actually think Nasri better off at the wing or in central only if Fab playing. He’s way too direct for a playmaker role, which with Arsene’s system is crucial. In the WBA game, we were exposed as the flow of the ball was a little bit stuck, Nasri tend to pick the ball up high, while Fab makes room for other to easily pass to him and control the game. We were exposed and WBA scored 3 despite Nasri brilliant individual effort.

I actually think that Nasri has improved considerably since being given a more central role. His form this season has been outstanding and it has coincided with him having more freedom in midfield with Fabregas missing a few games. I actually think that they have an ideal replacement for Fabregas if they decide to let him go to Barca for £40m+.

Corley on January 20, 2011 at 11:06 pm

These aren’t necessarily exclusive points. I agree with TomF that he’s looked much better this year in the central role (though he’s looked better everywhere, not just centrally). His vision and passing are near-Cesc levels. But I agree with Arsenal4 that the skill Cesc still has that Nasri hasn’t picked up yet is that of slowing the game down and holding the ball (learned from an entire world cup with Spain, I trust) in order to control games. Nasri has a constant instinct to play the ball forwards–a big part of why he’s scoring so many goals, but it seems hard for him to slow down and play keep-away. If he can learn to control games a little more from the center he’ll have true class for a CAM.

The bizarre thing to me is that it almost seems a reversal of last year–my memories of 09/10 Nasri are mostly of him cutting back inside from the wing to pass sideways instead of trying something, and my memories of 09/10 Cesc are mostly dashing-forwards-to-score llegada goals. But this year it’s imperial Cesc and direct Nasri. Seems like Nasri’s gained maturity and confidence, whereas Cesc has also gained…maturity and confidence–but maturity and confidence in a winger = direct creation, whereas maturity and confidence in a midfielder (as Cesc’s playing now) = control mixed with creation.

MoHoops on January 19, 2011 at 11:02 pm

thanks for the swift write up ZM, & i agree wwith teezee sagna is really beginning to ad some attacking end product to his game,good on him..top player & character too.

Nasri’s just different class

Ciaran on January 20, 2011 at 12:06 am

I thought Koscielny & Djourou looked pretty good tonight. I know the opposition wasn’t exactly stellar but they made a couple of really nice challenges.

brian on January 20, 2011 at 1:12 am

Djourou played an excellent game I thought. And of course, stellar as usual from Sagna.

K1avg on January 20, 2011 at 5:28 am

Djourou was pretty solid overall, but he made a couple major mistakes that could have been really devastating. There was the misplaced back pass and at least one missed header that I remember. Luckily, none of them led to anything for Leeds, but I think he definitely needs a break. Koscielny was brilliant; he absolutely owned his entire side of the field without ever falling out of position.

I thought Gibbs did quite well too, and I’m surprised ZM didn’t mention how many runs he was making on the counter as well. He had the lion’s share of the crosses in the first half. I was a little worried on a couple occasions when he didn’t get back as quickly as he needed to, but Song pinched back consistently to cover for him. I suspect that also factored into Wenger’s decision to play Song on the left – Gibbs doesn’t quite have the pace or stamina of Sagna, and can’t run up and down the wing at full blast for 90 minutes like Sagna does.

I also think Szczesny’s effort on Johnson’s rocket was admirable. If he hadn’t been caught on the wrong foot, he might have even got a fingertip on it. That man has “Arsenal No. 1″ written all over his future.

kimsia on January 20, 2011 at 2:55 am

The most plausible reason for this was that Wenger wanted to protect Kieran Gibbs more against the trickery of Snodgrass or Watt, though it’s rare that Wenger changes his preferred starting XI specifically for a particular opponent, especially when playing a side so clearly inferior to Arsenal in pure technical ability.

I highly agree with the statement about Wenger making slight tactical tweaks depending on opposition.

We saw this in the Chelsea game where Walcott’s speed negated the threat from Cole.

This game for eg, i saw how Snodgrass was regularly double-teamed. hence negating the most dangerous Leeds player and how Sagna had an attacking brief to target Ben Parker.

The common thing in these 2 games is that Wenger made slight tactical tweaks and both resulted in victories.

I wish to see Wenger do more of these rather than taking the laissez fairez approach and let the team get on with it.

The issue with my wish is that maybe when Wenger made tactical tweaks and then lost, i was probably not aware. hence biasing my conclusions about him being more successful when he made tweaks.

SSJ on January 22, 2011 at 12:19 am

Another possible – and, I think, plausible – reason for the tactical tweak of moving Song left to cover Gibbs is purely because he had Arshavin in front of him, and we know he doesn’t track back. He had the opportunity to move Song to the left for this game, whereas he didn’t in past games because with Eboue starting in past games on the right, Song was needed for cover on the right side, as Eboue was so often caught up field, or caught in possession. With Sagna doing his thing, Song could be slightly redeployed to cover for Arshavin.

Diskoboxx on January 20, 2011 at 3:33 am

Just a note that the majority of the chances Sagna had came after the first 20 minutes or so, which was after Gradel and Watt had switched position.

In truth neither could shackle him but the cross he flashed across the box and the goal were when Watt was left wing.

A good win for Arsenal who silenced the crowd within a few minutes with Nasri’s goal. Agree with others about Sagna. Has been a consistent performer for a while now and seems solid in defence and attack.

Bendtner and Arshavin again were poor (like the first game) although the cross for Van Persie was worth a mention. I can see Arshavin leaving in the summer as he may want a fresh challenge and not sure what the future holds for the Dane who will never get the Centre Forward role he wants at Arsenal so a move where he will be the main man may be the best thing for him to try to establish himself.

RA on January 20, 2011 at 6:09 pm

Lots of Arsenal fans seem to think that Arshavin believes he has made a mistake coming to England when he is more suited to a less physical league, I have absolutely no idea what goes on in his head but I do think that if he was intent on moving there would be a lot more rumours about him set up by his agent.

Bendtner had a sort of mixed game, while he was mostly poor I do have a bit of sympathy with him as he is playing somewhere he isn’t suited too, and he did track back a bit in the second half at least. I think he will be kept though as he has proven he can be useful for us (see February onwards last year).

steve on January 20, 2011 at 8:15 pm

bendtner mostly poor? I thought he was pretty good – good touch for the most part, looked bright and lively like a man getting his sharpness back.

great cross for van persie, and it seems to have gone unnoticed that it was his well-timed, well-weighted through ball that set up the penalty in the home tie, so thanks to him we’re still in the competition. plus of course, he’s playing out wide when he’s far more suited to the middle.

i’ll be gutted if he leaves, I think he could be a really excellent forward as the deeper of a split front two, but the change to 4-3-3 has really done him no favours and i fear he’ll probably go and fulfil his potential elsewhere

RA on January 20, 2011 at 8:58 pm

I’m saying he was mostly poor because in the first half especially, his first touch let him down and his passing wasn’t the best. However he did improve in the second half I think